The evolution of computers and networking technologies from high-cost, low performance data processing systems to low cost, high-performance communication, problem solving and entertainment systems has provided a cost-effective and time saving means to lessen the burden of performing every day tasks such as correspondence, bill paying, shopping, budgeting and information gathering. For example, a computing system interfaced to the Internet, via wire or wireless technology, can provide a user with a channel for nearly instantaneous access to a wealth of information from a repository of web sites and servers located around the world, at the user's fingertips.
Typically, the information available via web sites and servers is accessed via a web browser executing on a web client (e.g., a computer). For example, a web user can deploy a web browser and access a web site by entering the web site Uniform Resource Locator (URL) (e.g., a web address and/or an Internet address) into an address bar of the web browser and pressing the enter key on a keyboard or clicking a “go” button with a mouse. The URL typically includes four pieces of information that facilitate access: a protocol (a language for computers to communicate with each other) that indicates a set of rules and standards for the exchange of information, a location to the web site, a name of an organization that maintains the web site, and a suffix (e.g., com, org, net, gov and edu) that identifies the type of organization.
Alternatively, the user can enter keywords into a general search engine, which will search the entirety of the World Wide Web or other collection of sites (e.g., intranet) and return sites that it determines to be related to the keywords. Often, however, the general search engine will return a substantial number of sites that are wholly unrelated to the particular interests of the user. For example, if the user searched using the keyword “virus,” rather than obtaining information related only to computer viruses he would receive information relating to biological viruses as well as computer viruses. The user can thereafter scroll through a plurality of returned sites and attempt to determine if they are related to user interests. Scrolling through returned results can be extremely time consuming and frustrating to the user, as general search engines can return a substantial number of sites when performing a search. The user can attempt to narrow the search via utilizing a combination of Boolean operators, but it can be difficult to construct an appropriate Boolean search that will result in a return of sites containing only relevant information.
A search engine searches the contents of web sites and servers for keywords, and returns a list of links to web sites and servers where the keywords are found. Basically, the search engine incorporates a web “crawler” (aka, a “spider” or a “robot”) that retrieves as many documents as possible as their associated URL. This information is then stored such that an indexer can manipulate the retrieved data. The indexer reads the documents, and creates a prioritized index based on the keywords contained in each document and other attributes of the document. (Note that all words may be considered as keywords). Respective search engines generally employ a proprietary algorithm to create indices such that meaningful results are returned for a query.
However, despite the vast improvements in searching afforded by technology such as search engines, users are often too overwhelmed with search results to actually find what they are searching for. Additionally, a typical search engine does little to facilitate a user who is not sure what they are trying to find. Thus, they may enter various search queries just to see if one of them returns results of interest. In either case, the user typically comes away unsatisfied and without the information that they were seeking. If one considers that a great deal of information is utilized for business transactions, such as matching products to potential buyers, providing information to an appropriate user is extremely valuable. Users seeking information need to be able to find information quickly and easily whether or not they can second guess what search query string would trigger a search engine to find what they are looking for.